Excalibur rebound from slow rugby start
The Trent Excalibur men’s rugby team is not yet where it wants to be in the OUA but has made significant strides this season.
After going 0-8 last season and starting 0-3 this year, their 52-20 victory over the Western Mustangs on Saturday was their fourth win in five games. They ended the regular season 4-4 and in fifth place overall.
On Saturday, they’ll travel to face the fourth place Waterloo Warriors in a quarter-final playoff.
Trent made the playoffs in 2016 in its first season back in the OUA after winning the OCAA gold medal in 2015. Last year was the start of a rebuild as many of their starters from their OCAA era graduated.
A 37-10 loss to Waterloo in their third game of the season proved to be a turning point, said Excalibur head coach Tom McLeod.
“Our captain Mo Yusuf worded it best in our last meeting,” McLeod said.
“He didn’t really see the first three games this year as being Trent rugby games. It was after that we really came together as a team and identified more clearly how we wanted to be perceived and how we wanted to play the game.”
The fourth week they defeated RMC 38-16 starting a string of three consecutive wins.
“The difference between when we got scored on and what our attitude was and when we scored and what our attitude was and how we were able to navigate that game was a lot different,” McLeod said.
They hope to show the progress they’ve made by giving Waterloo a better match than their first meeting.
“We have a sense that we should have some confidence going into this game, that the score in the previous matchup with them doesn’t matter. I think that’s important,” McLeod said.
“It’s finding that fine line between wanting to be confident and understanding we’re only here because of our hard work. It’s not a case of just showing up. We have to take all the lessons we’ve learned and put those into action.”
McLeod said the biggest stride this year has been creating a better team dynamic.
“The group has really come together and realized the importance of playing as a team,” McLeod said.
“I think we had some groups of individuals last year who struggled to mesh where this year everyone has put everything aside for the betterment of the team. We’ve just got a lot more clarity around what everybody’s job is. Their main focus is to make sure they go out and do it so everybody else can take care of their own piece and we can move forward together.”
With as few as four players departing at the end of this season, McLeod hopes to keep the momentum going next season.
Many of the players who departed in the past three years achieved a goal of an OCAA championship with an eye to an OUA return. McLeod said he’s talked with the players who have come into the program in the past three years about creating their own legacy.
“They want to be a team that goes from just being a team that is in the OUA to one that is consistently near the top and competes for a medal,” McLeod said. “If you look at our progress so far we’re well on that track.
“We’ve had a really good year in terms of getting that alignment as a staff and having the players on the same page, too. This is a team that is functioning very near to their absolute top potential and I think a lot of credit goes to the assistant coaches and the support staff and also to the players.”